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Live performance at Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels on 3 June 2012 chorus: Octopus Symphony Chorus orchestra: Le Concert d'Anvers conductor: Bart Van Reyn soprano: Ida Falk Winland tenor: Yves Saelens bass: Birger Radde more info: INTRODUCTION - indicates the husbandman's satisfaction at the abundant harvest. RECITATIVE Hannah (soprano): That which Spring first promised with its blossoms, that which Summer ripened with its warmth, Autumn presents in abundance to the joyful farmer now. Lucas (tenor): The golden store he now transports in heavy-laden wagons. The spacious barn can hardly hold all that his fields have yielded. Simon (bass): Happily he looks around him, measuring the piled-up grain, and happiness fills his heart. TRIO & CHORUS Simon (bass): So nature honest toil rewards, she invokes it, smiles upon it, gladdens it with hope, lends it a willing hand, and guides it with all her might. Trio: All benefits come from thee, O toil. The cottage that shelters us, the wool that clothes us, the food that sustains us, all come from thee, they are thy gifts. O toil, O noble toil, all benefits come from thee. Hannah (soprano): Thou dost virtue instil, and makest rough-hewn manners gentle. Lucas (tenor): Thou dost ward off vice, and purify the heart of man. Simon (bass): Thou dost give us the courage and inclination to strive for goodness and perform our duty. Chorus: O toil, O noble toil, from thee comes every benefit. RECITATIVE Hannah (soprano): See how impatiently the youngsters rush to the hazel-bush! Small boys swing on every single branch, and from the swaying bush the ripe fruit rains like hail. Simon (bass): The farmer's son is climbing nimbly up a ladder to the top of the tree. Hidden in the topmost branches, he sees his sweetheart drawing nigh, and, with a lover's sense of fun, throws the fat nuts down into her path. Lucas (tenor): Around every tree in the garden girls of all ages are gathered, their colour as fresh and rosy as the ripe fruit they pick.
